At that time, the Timbers were sitting in last place in the Western Conference with a dismal 1-3-6 record and just nine points for the season.

But over the last 10 games, the Timbers have racked up 15 points and moved up into seventh place in the Western Conference standings.

They missed their goal by three points, but it's evident that the Timbers have been moving in the right direction.

"We set a goal for ourselves for that stretch of games and we came up a little bit short," Timbers defender Michael Harrington said. "That just means we got to pick it up in the games we have left."

Historically, teams have needed around 50 points to make the MLS Cup playoffs, but only three Western Conference teams are currently on pace to finish over 50 points this season based on points per game average.

While the Timbers (5-6-9, 24 points) may be able to slip into the playoffs without reaching the 50-point threshold, they are aiming at picking up as many points as possible in their final 14 games and trying to get as close to 50 points as they can by the end of the season.

"All you can do is bite off three points at a time," Porter said. "We talked about certainly in the last 16 games, so ahead of the Seattle game, what we would need to do, what record we would need to get to get around 50 points because I think around 50 points, even less, will get us in."

To reach 50 points, the Timbers would need to pick up 26 points in their final 14 matches, a difficult average of 1.86 points per game.

While Porter said his squad is aware of the big picture and where they want to be at the end of the year, for the remainder of the season he wants his team to just focus on winning the next game.

"You have to understand that you're not going to win every game, nor do you need to win every game," Porter said. "You need to win the next one and if you don't win, you need to win the next one after that."

The Timbers have a difficult schedule to close out the season. Portland will play eight of its final 14 games on the road and will also be forced to balance MLS games with CONCACAF Champions League group play.

The Timbers see their home games as especially important in the final stretch of the season. Portland is just 2-2-7 at home this season and the Timbers recognize that they need to start picking up three points in their home games to make their way up the table.

"We don't want to look back at the end of the season and be like we lost three points here, we lost two points here and we should have won," Timbers defender Danny O'Rourke said.

On Friday night, the Timbers went down 1-0 early to the Colorado Rapids at home at Providence Park. But this time around, Portland fought back to not only tie the game up, but pull ahead to earn a crucial 2-1 win.

The Timbers will need that same fight in every match if they want to make a run at a playoff spot in their final 14 games.

"There's no doubt about it that up to this point we expected to have a lot more points than we do have, regardless of if it's over five games, ten games, whatever the stretch may be," Timbers captain Will Johnson said. "But our approach now has turned to let's just take it one game at a time."